“I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Iacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the liuing.”
1611 King James Version (KJV)
22:32 I am the God of Abraham - The argument runs thus: God is not the God of the dead, but of the living: (for that expression, Thy God, implies both benefit from God to man, and duty from man to God) but he is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: therefore, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are not dead, but living. Therefore, the soul does not die with the body. So indeed the Sadducees supposed, and it was on this ground that they denied the resurrection. #Exod 3:6|.
Mt 22:32 I am the God of Abraham. See Ex 3:6. God does not say, "I was", but "I 'am' the God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob". The present tense shows that he is still the God of the departed patriarchs, and that they are still in existence. God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. Queen Victoria is not the queen of Bacon, Shakespeare and Ben Jonson, but only of her living subjects. The Savior teaches that the soul is resurrected when it leaves the body, and that there is no unconscious state between death and the final resurrection of the body.